The European Commission has in recent years produced several Directives that aim to regulate air pollution by setting limits for the allowable concentration of pollutants in ambient air. Directives have already been agreed that cover pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, lead and carbon monoxide. For some other pollutants, such as the heavy metals arsenic, cadmium and nickel, the Commission intends ...

The definition of appropriate performance criteria is one of the key issues for the benchmarking of air quality models in regulatory applications. As part of the FAIRMODE benchmarking activities (Thunis et al., 2010), suitable criteria for air quality modelling in the frame of the EU air quality directive (AQD) 2008 are proposed and tested. The suggested approach builds on the target indicator ...

Last summer, the European Commission adopted the so-called European Environment and Health Strategy, which is better known as the SCALE Initiative. Its objectives are to reduce the disease burden caused by environmental factors in the European Union (EU), identify and prevent new health threats caused by these factors, and strengthen policymaking capacity in this area. A strong link The ...

Ambient air pollution can have adverse effects on the health of exposed populations, but individuals or sub-populations are not equally vulnerable. Differences in vulnerability can be attributed to characteristics that affect exposure, biological susceptibility, and social capacity to manage risk. Thus, variability in the distribution of health effects in a population may be expected, both in ...

All pollutants can be transported through the aquatic environment and atmosphere, and many accumulate in downstream water bodies and their biota. The probability that pollution will cause transboundary impacts depends on the location of its source in relation to national boundaries, as well as the time it takes for a given pollutant to degrade. In general, microbial pollution is primarily a local ...

Ground-level ozone is one of the air pollutants of most concern in Europe. Ozone pollution is produced by photochemical processes involving nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in the lower parts of the atmosphere. Ozone levels become particularly high in regions close to high ozone precursor emissions and during summer when stagnant meteorological conditions with high insolation and ...

The textile industry is plagued by air pollution problems which must be resolved. In particular, smoke and odor arising in the process require abatement. Air pollution control technology is available today which will serve the textile industry well into the 21st century. The nature of the problem The major air pollution problem in the textile industry occurs during the finishing stages, ...

Two new model tools have been developed for meeting the EU Air Quality Directive targets: SIMAIRroad (related to traffic emissions) and SIMAIRrwc (rwc standing for residential wood combustion). The models have been evaluated for different traffic situations and for residential areas with wood combustion, with promising results. The models can calculate PM10 statistics, such as ...

The municipality of Utrecht has ten years of experience with exceeding the pollution limit values for NO2 and benzene, and offering advice for traffic plans on the effects of air pollution. Utrecht promotes prevention and integration of environmental issues in traffic plans and town planning. Utrecht has widened the use of the Dutch air pollution model for traffic (CAR) to prevent new exceeding ...

Ozone is the main product of complex photochemical processes in the lower atmosphere, involving NOX and VOCs as precursors. Ozone is a strong photochemical oxidant. In elevated concentrations it causes serious health problems and damage to materials and vegetation such as agricultural crops. The main sectors that emit ozone precursors are road transport, power and heat generation plants, ...

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) consists of the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from power plants and/or CO2-intensive industries such as refineries, cement, iron and steel, its subsequent transport to a storage site, and finally its injection into a suitable underground geological formation for the purposes of permanent storage. It is considered to be one of the medium term 'bridging ...

Ozone levels during summer 2009 were as low as during summer 2008 and according to several indicators were among the lowest since reporting of Europe-wide data commenced in 1997 (1). Average temperatures in summer 2009 were generally higher than in 2008 and close to those measured in the extremely hot summer of 2003 when the highest number of exceedances in the last decade occurred. However, ...

Despite efforts to mitigate ozone pollution, the number of exceedances of EU ground-level ozone concentration standards for protecting human health (Directive 2008/50/EC) remained at serious levels during summer 2012 (1). In the summer of 2012, the threshold of 120 micrograms per cubic metre of air (ìg/m3) maximum daily eight-hour mean was exceeded on more than 25 days again across large ...

The textile industry is plagued by air pollution problems which must be resolved. In particular, smoke and odor arising in the process require abatement. Air pollution control technology is available today which will serve the textile industry well into the 21st century. The nature of the problem The major air pollution problem in the textile industry occurs during the finishing stages, ...

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